NUDE are Boštjan Dermol, Gaber Marolt, Teodor Amanovič-Toš, Marko Furek and Dejan Štuhec. These guys have been on the Slovenian music scene for over 20 years now, marking many number one hits, and playing lots of concerts.
They are back in EMA this year (their last attempt to represent Slovenia was in 2007) with the song “It’s Gonna Be OK”. We spoke to Gaber Marolt about their entry, how they are preparing for this Contest, and a lot more. Check out our interview with him right here:
escXtra: Hello Gaber! First of all, thank you for taking your time out for doing this interview. Can you tell us a little bit about your band for the start?
Gaber: Where to start… Let’s make a long story short; We started a band over 20 years ago in 1993, so we’ve had our 20th anniversary last year. In this time we released six studio albums, a live album, two compilations, shot more than 20 videos, played more than 1500 concerts… It was a helluwa-ride! To mark our 20th anniversary we’ve played two concerts with a Symphonic orchestra, we released two albums, one compilation and one with new songs, three songs entered the charts, two went first. It was a good year.
X: You entered EMA already in past. How was your experience in this contest, and what memories does that EMA bring back?
G: This is our fifth time since we first appeared in 1999 with a song “Ši’z d’ bes” (She’s the best). 1998 and 1999 were very important years for our career, with the realease of our second and very succesful album “Supermarket” (went golden), after 1997 debut called “Predigra” (Foreplay). 2007 was also special, we never won (so far 🙂 ), but all songs went first in the chart afterwards so we got what we came for. 2007 was a great stage performance (song was “Element L”), costumes and everything. It was a great atmosphere, a great show!
X: How did you decide to do a come-back to this contest now?
G: We got invited, and as they say after seven years… We thought it would be fun again, otherwise we woldn’t have come. We decided to go for it, because we believe that we have a good song. And this years selection/voting system is something that we can relate to, and all the other musicians entering this year are really good performers, so we are delighted to be in such a prominent company.
X: Can you tell us a little bit about your song?
G: Well! It’s hard to say, we always want to create a good song, of course, but the people choose, as they will, and we hope it will be well accepted. Our song is up-tempo, modern, cross-over, optimistic. The lyrics are about feeling good, hope, love, friendship and that everything is going to be ok. It’s just the thing and the message that a lot of people need right now. Something we can all relate to.
X: How are you preparing for this contest?
G: We are back at the studio figuring out some stuff about the performance, technical stuff with the TV, lightning, picture, sound. We are still guitarring a bit (playing guitar :)). The things one has to do that the whole performance at the end of the day sounds good and looks good as well. Some members do push ups, jogging… Other focus more on performance part and artistic expression 🙂
X: Can you tell us a little bit about your stage performance, how is everything going to look like on the 8th of March?
G: We are the ususal suspects… We won’t do anything really gymnastic, only rock’n’roll I guess. But we made a very thorough concept, we just hope that it would be possible to present it the way we want. And it’s good that our wishes and ideas don’t always match the technical possibilities and given terms, so there is always some space for further improvement, and it kind of keeps you down to Earth.
X: What would representing Slovenia in Eurovision mean to you guys?
G: There’s a joke we broke a couple a days ago for some newspaper, where we said we’d rather come second. Of course it would be an honour, because in a way it’s like pop-music Olympics. It’s a great opportunity and a great responsibility on the other hand. We are sure that we would do a good job, and do our best if we’re selected to go, but after all it’s just rock’n’roll and we like it.
X: If you could do a collaboration with any of the other six acts in EMA, who would it be with, and why?
G: We did a live duet in Križanke, Ljubljana last year with Bilbi and on a few other occasions. Wouldn’t mind doing some songs with all of them in fact. In a way, we are all up there and we’re colaborating already.
X: Are you Eurovision fans, and have you got an all time favourite Eurovision song?
G: We track Eurovision since our early days, I remember a lot of ex Yugoslavian songs we liked to sing back there. Tough to choose between alltimes classics Abba, Johnny Logan and many others of course. I’d say “Rock me baby” by Riva, for it was a home team, and in the last decade, I think Lena’s “Sattelite” was a great song. Slovenia also had a number of great songs 🙂
X: And finally, do you have a message for all your fans, and for all the readers of escXtra.com?
G: Sumana Tristar! Go out there, have fun and take care. Be what you wanna be, live your dreams, don’t let anyone to take them away from you, be patient, loving, caring, be the change you want to see in the World. Dance…
X: Thank you very much, and we wish you the best of luck in EMA!
G: Thumbs up! Thank you very much!
You can follow NUDE on their official Facebook page here, and on Twitter. The band’s entry in this year’s EMA is unfortunately not available on Youtube, so why not give a listen to their last entry in EMA from 2007 – “Element L”:
